After a painfully long time away from near-daily contributions here, I've finally got my act together with the new digs and can get back on the site to share with y'all. Still have a pile of "honey-do's" to knock out around here, but for the most part, the shop is up and running.

I'm going to remain a private mechanic who provides personal restoration and repair services to the affluent client. Think of me as being the go-to guy to keep the doctors, lawyers, and oil guy's hot-rods up and running when they want to burn up the pavement. I've been an ASE Master mechanic for 28 years now and have "worked for the man" for far too long. Tired of being forced to sell parts and services to the public that they don't need, just to make a paycheck. Now I can simply install high-performance goodies and spruce-up show cars at my own pace. No broken serpentine belts on the minivans for me, just superchargers, shift-kits, and cold-air intakes!

Fantastic looking shop. It looks nice and organized. That's thing #1 when people go to a mechanic. Cleaner the shop, the better the shop. It always seems to work out that way too. Fantastic that you get to work on restoring and doing work on the weekend drivers and show cars. I'd love to do that. I just want to rebuild an 86 Grand National so bad. Let me know if you ever service one, I'd love to hear how your "test drive" after you do the work goes.

Thanks all for the kind thoughts. Yes, I'm living the dream. I can't take full credit for all the expense as I have an investor that has put up a large chunk of the nearly half a million for the property and the building. It'll take a few years to get him paid off.

We are still installing plumbing for compressed air and I've got a few more pieces of shop equipment to go, but we're working with what we have already. I'm waiting on a reach-in bead blast cabinet to arrive, and to get my stainless steel topped benches in the build room installed. Oh, and did I mention satellite TV in every room, 16 meg internet service, and a fully-stocked wet bar and lounge for the clients? I'll post more pics as we move along.

As for the Buick Grand Nationals, I did install a larger turbo on one a few years back along with a larger stainless exhaust system. It was fast, but not as fast as the 500hp Supercharged Shelby Mustang you see in the pics. I'm doing a McLeod clutch in that one.

I'm one of those really anal people when it comes to cleanliness and organization so it's really tough to make a mess on the freshly-painted floor. BTW, did you know that epoxy coatings in a shop this size cost $4000? Crazy nexpensive, but well worth it.

One of my best friends and even older than me has a shop not quite that big in Kennewick. He basically does "street rod" stuff both building and cleaning up other people's crappy work. Its only about 3 1/2 doors wide but is 2 deep and he has everyone build/repair tool old and new known to man. He's always been the best welder I ever saw and has been doing fabricating work for about 30 years.

He used to build trailers for people to haul their car treasures in. Did our 5th wheel patterned after a Chaparral of its time. He was to busy but did it for me as a favor. It was the hit of all the drag strips we took the car with timely and thoughtfully placed cubboards and storage sites. Even had a pump built into our own water holding tank so we could cool the car between rounds.

BTW if any of you are racers and want to carry your own water and pump it with a high powered Holley "blue/red" pump. Put water pump lube in the water so it won't rust & freeze up the pump. lol

All the cars this guy does will bop up and down the freeways at 75mph all day.

After a painfully long time away from near-daily contributions here, I've finally got my act together with the new digs and can get back on the site to share with y'all. Still have a pile of "honey-do's" to knock out around here, but for the most part, the shop is up and running.

I'm going to remain a private mechanic who provides personal restoration and repair services to the affluent client. Think of me as being the go-to guy to keep the doctors, lawyers, and oil guy's hot-rods up and running when they want to burn up the pavement. I've been an ASE Master mechanic for 28 years now and have "worked for the man" for far too long. Tired of being forced to sell parts and services to the public that they don't need, just to make a paycheck. Now I can simply install high-performance goodies and spruce-up show cars at my own pace. No broken serpentine belts on the minivans for me, just superchargers, shift-kits, and cold-air intakes!